Not Sick
by Hart Matters
Summary: [Now a multi-chaptered fic! Name under construction] Maya has always been apart of Riley's Protection squad. She's always been so invested in making sure Riley was okay that she doesn't realize she needs someone to protect her. [Lucaya]
1. Chapter I

_AN: Here's on half of a little two shot that I wrote up in the course of a couple days. :)_ _This chapter contains friendship!Rilaya and Lucas is only mentioned in this first half. This is **intended** to be a two-shot, but if I get a good amount of positive feedback/requests to continue on I **might** go ahead and try to turn this into a multi-chapter fic. _

_As always, read & review. _  
_Enjoy!_

* * *

A squeal erupted from dorm room 305 followed by claps and soon after shushing sounds. It was just about 11 pm on a friday night, there was no reason to be shushing; however, Riley Matthews did not want anyone to hear what she had just said.

The two best friends—Riley Matthews and Maya Hart— sat on the blonde's twin sized bed in her dorm room across from each other, playfully swatting each others arms. "Shut up, no way! He finally asked you out!?" Maya started to bounce on her mattress in excitement.

Riley held onto Maya's arms and bounced with her, just as excited. "He did, Maya! But shhh. He asked if we could keep it on the down low and let everyone just kind of figure it out by themselves, you know? He's not all into PDA." Riley sighed—swooned— and placed her hands in her lap as she laid back to stare at the ceiling. She was smitten.

Maya wasn't about to let her go that easily. She laid beside her brunette friend, placed on her stomach with her head in her hands. "Well, yeah I bet. You two kind of have been dating—er well, going to dates— for 3 months and just now he decides to make it official." To this, Riley simply smiled wider, the muscles in her cheeks near sore, "Yeah. I guess he's really old fashioned about it."

Maya gave a very slow, exaggerated, and sarcastic nod. "Yeah. Definitely. Going to the movies at 11 o'clock am on a tuesday with all the senior citizens, ordering food in to watch netflix, walks in the park at literally two o'clock in the morning. Super old fashioned he doesn't want anyone to know you two socialize outside of our Biology Lab class." She puckered her lips, continuing to nod. "Very romantic."

Riley gave a sigh with slight annoyance behind it and sat up on the bed to look down at Maya beside her. "It was romantic! There was no one there to interrupt so it was literally just him and I. Like everyone else in the world didn't matter!" Riley smiled to herself, thinking about all their talks that they had and how close it had brought them together. Then it seemed she was trying to old back a laugh, "Okay, except that one time we went to watch the Big Hero 6 and that one old man started snoring."

Both Riley and Maya broke out into fits of giggles. Once they caught their breath, Maya sat up and hopped out of her bed to sit herself down at her desk chair. "Well, I hope that you and…" Maya paused, allowing Riley to chime in with her new beau's name, "Jake." Maya nodded and spun in her chair. "are happy. But I swear, Riles. If he hurts you, he'll be in the hospital in no time. You can count on me and Ranger Rick on that one."

Riley raised a brow and sat on her legs with a small smirk on her lips. "About you and Ranger Rick…" Her voice trailed off and Maya could sense where this was going. With a roll of her eyes, Maya pushed on her heel to spin her chair again. "What about us?"

"Well," Riley began, scooting—well, more like hopping— three times, a couple inches at a time, towards her blonde friend. "I hear he's coming over here tomorrow." Riley wiggled her brows suggestively.

Riley saw the way they continued their banter that started way back in the seventh grade. At first she thought it was their dynamic. It that may be so, but to continue it all the way to their second year of college? Obviously there had to be something there. Not to mention all the looks that Lucas gave Maya when Maya wasn't looking was pretty telling.

Maya stopped her chair from spinning and stood up, going over to her dresser. She couldn't believe she was having this conversation again. "Yeah? To study! For our anthropology class' midterm. That you're in by the way! Plus, Zay and Farkle are tagging along, too. You know this!"  
Riley was quick to get on her feet, following right behind Maya. "Yeah, I know, but I told you guys that I have a meeting with my group for a presentation at that time." Maya turned on her heel, her eyes glaring into Riley's. "You suck."

The tall brunette gave an innocent smile as the much shorter girl passed her to look through the drawers back at the desk. Maya rustled through the drawers, tossing around papers and pens. "Yeah, well. Before you say it, there is absolutely nothing going on between me and Ranger Rick."

Riley was right behind her, hands on top of one another in front of her, a habit she picked up whenever she was trying to convince someone of something. "But why not? You go to each other for everything! Well, if I'm not available anyway." Maya decided that whatever she was looking for was not in that drawer and went to sit on the floor in front of her bed. She started to rummage underneath it. Riley sat on the bed, looking down at a presumably busy Maya.

"Like, remember when you were invited to that Art Gala and you wanted me to come but I couldn't because I went to Philadelphia with my parents? You brought Lucas, not Farkle or Zay." Riley swung her legs back and forth off the edge of the bed. "Or that time you needed a model for your still life project. You asked Lucas to do it."

Oddly enough, as she mentioned that project Maya found the painted canvas of the Texas boy under her bed and tossed it over her shoulder.

"Oh, oh!" Riley bounced up and down, making it harder for Maya to find whatever she was looking for. "We both had the flu that one week and Lucas bought medicine and kleenex and soup and food. And how about when you two rode home back together for our first Thanksgiving break!"

Maya un-crouched herself and Riley almost laughed at how comical she looked with her blonde hair in disarray, eye twitching in frustration. "First, Farkle was studying for a final. Zay doesn't even go to our University. Second, you move too much for still life and can you imagine how much Farkle's ego would have inflated? He would have hung that painting up in his future mansion! C, he bought medicine and kleenex and soup and food for the both of us Riley! We were both sick! Oh, and lastly, you guys ditched us and left earlier!"

Riley opened her mouth, but she couldn't dispute any of that. She huffed in annoyance and decided to deter the subject, "You know Maya. You went from first, second, to—"

"Not the point, Matthews." Maya sat on her legs on the floor with her hands at her hips. "Huckleberry and I are nothing."

Riley sighed in defeat and threw her hands up in the air before falling back onto Maya's bed. "Fine."

Just then, a chime of Maya's phone went off and the both of them raced to the desk where she had left it. Maya smiled and flicked her finger on the screen and started to respond.

Riley raised a brow with a huge smirk plastered upon her lips. "Nothing, eh?"

Maya rolled her eyes for the umpteenth time that night. "Yes. Nothing."

Riley looked at Maya with a deadpan expression. "What kind of friend texts the other friend about matching batman and superman onesies and plans on buying them? Hmmm? I'll tell you what kind of friends those are." Riley wagged her finger once at Maya as if to relay her point. "friends that like each other!"

Maya finished her response and placed the phone back on the desk. "We both just really like superman and batman. Nothing more to it."

"Yeah? Well, so do I! How come he doesn't buy me a onesie?"

"Well maybe, you should ask him to." Maya looked over at her phone that had chimed off again. "Says he'll be back from walmart at his dorm by 2am."

Riley smiled at her friend, her voice very teasing and suggestive like. "And why does he need to tell you that, huh?"

"In case I wanted something, Riles. Duh." Maya started to sniffle, her nose was now running.

"Yikes, maybe you should ask him to get some Emergen-C." Riley placed her hand on Maya's forehead, feeling for an abnormal temperature.

"Nah. I'm fine. It's probably from all the dust under my bed earlier." Maya took Riley's hand off her forehead and looked around her room. "Speaking of which… where did I put that thing?"

"What thing?"

"My Anthropology text book," Maya bit on her lip and stood in the middle of her dorm room, trying to remember where she had last seen it.

"Have you checked your bag?" Riley chuckled, knowing full well that the girl's own backpack would be the last place she'd look. She picked up the army green backpack and took the thick text from it, handing it over to Maya.

"Oh yeah. Thanks Riles," Maya grabbed the book from Riley, but dropped it to the floor when a sneeze crept up on her and shook her entire body. ""Scuse me."

Riley quickly found some napkins—probably some left over from takeout— and handed it to her best friend, stepping back more than an arm's length away. "Yeah, no problem."

Taking the napkin, Maya blew her nose then tossed it into the garbagecan. "I'm not sick. Don't worry."

"You know Maya," Riley began, grabbing Maya's phone from the desk and handing it to her. "Lucas will gladly nurse you back to health."

Maya snatched the phone from Riley and tossed it onto her bed to the left of her.

"I'm not sick!"

She sneezed again, and grabbed all of the napkins that Riley had pushed her way glaring at the girl's smirk.

"Not sick," Maya reiterated.


	2. Chapter II

_**AN:** Hi, everyone! Wasn't that long of a wait, but since I had already uploaded the second part on Tumblr, I had it done already so why not just upload it, right?_  
 _I know that I haven't received many review for this, but I have gained a couple of follows, so at least there's that. If you feel like leaving a review, it would be greatly appreciated, even just a "Wow, i loved this!" would really give me motivation to continue this._

 _Good news though is that I **do** plan to make at least a chapter three. Someone on tumblr wanted to know a couple of things that had to do with this chapter as a follow up and it gave me the motivation to make another chapter. I'm not sure if I'll continue after that. I'll have to wait for my creative juices to get going._

 _Without further ado, here's chapter two!_

* * *

Tick tock. Tick tock. Sniff sniff. Thud. Thud. Tick— _Sniff_ —Tock.

Lucas stared down at his lap, twirling a pen between the fingers of his hands. In his lap he had both an anthropology text book and a notebook, various highlighted text and notes scribbled on blue printed lines. He and his little blonde study buddy Maya, who was stationed laying on her bed, stomach down and legs crossed in the air behind her, had an anthropology mid term coming up and although he had paid attention in class he wasn't confident that he would get a passing grade.

The same was not to say for Maya Hart. She was currently balancing a purple pen on her upper lip, forcing her eyes to cross. She, too, had her anthropology book and a notebook open. Contrary to Lucas' abundance of notes, there were barely three lines written out with lots and lots of highlights in her text.

"Uh. Maya, why do you just highlight nearly everything in the book?" Lucas shifted on his spot on the floor, facing Maya's bed. This is where she lost her concentration and the pen fell from between her upper lip and nose. It hit the near empty notebook with a small thud.

Zay, who had visited their college campus for the weekend as he often did, peered over to Maya's text book. "Oh. Luke, the more you highlight, the more it looks like you've read. When really, you haven't read past the first line of every chapter!" As if proud of himself and his two cents he had to offer, Zay sat back on a green beanbag chair across from the two.

"Gotta point, Babineux." Maya extended out a hand, pointing her pen at Zay, "And that's how it started," You could almost hear Lucas sigh in relief, "but then I started to actually read this hunk of buh-log-na and I started to highlight everything I didn't understand." The blonde girl moved on her bed to sit up and lift her textbook only to drop it back down on her bed for dramatic effect. "And I don't understand any of it!"

As if on cue, a bowl-cut looking fellow opened the door to her dorm room with a huge grin on his face. "And that's why I'm here! And you know it's pronounced Buh-loh-nee, not Buh-log-nuh, right Maya?"

"Oh, Farkle, thank God." Both Lucas and Maya spoke with relief.

"Yeah yeah, tell me how I'm your almighty Ruler and Savior of your world." Farkle sat at the desk chair and let his backpack slip off onto the ground. He opened it and tossed Maya a box of tissues. "For you, M'lady. As you requested."

Maya caught the blue box and tore it open, immediately blowing her nose.

"Eugh," Zay spewed out in disgust. "Come on. I visit to spend some time with some of my favorite people and you guys have to study? _And_ you're sick?!"

While blowing her nose, Maya was able to get out an, "Am not!" Shortly after she tossed the two used tissues into the garbage bin.  
"Are too!" Zay leaned back in the bean bag chair and grabbed the football he had brought over and began tossing it in the air and catching it repeatedly just as he had done when they were studying quietly.

"Maya, you have been sniffling this whole entire time. Since I got here at 10, and it's now," Lucas paused to look up at the clock on top of the door. "Uh. Your clock is stuck."

Maya let out a growl as she stomped out of bed. She grabbed the chair from under Farkle, who quickly stood up to avoid falling on his rump, and placed it in front of the door. She got up on the chair with her bare feet and grabbed the clock from it's place on the wall and turned it over. "Dumb thing! It does this like two times a week… I swear to God."

Farkle and Zay watched her struggle on the chair as she tried to hook the clock back on the pin in the wall. Lucas sighed and got up to help her, placing his books down on the ground.

Maya stood on the tips of her toes, tongue stuck out just slightly. It was a habit of hers that she used whenever anything needed to be done with precision. Maya teetered a bit too far in one direction and before her body could topple over onto the ground, Lucas' arms caught her frail frame.

This left the clock flying out of Maya's hands and onto the ground which elicited a rather high-pitched girly scream from the Minkus while Zay scrambled off the floor and onto the other side of the room.

Lucas placed Maya back on her feet, his hands lingering on her arms to steady her and make sure she wasn't about to fall over again. Her skin felt hot.

"Thanks, Huckleberry," Maya spoke with a congested voice and patted Lucas on the arm. "Just kinda' had a dizzy spell there." Maya sniffed again and leaned over to reach for the box of tissues almost falling the process. Thankfully though, she caught herself. All three boys were watching her warily, concerned for her health.

"Hmmm," Farkle began. "When was the last time you ate, Maya?" He quickly made the situation about Maya before she could make it about the feminine sounding screech that had come out of him.

Maya blew her nose into the tissue and sniffed once more before answering him. "Hmmm… I ate some instant Ramen right before Lucas came."

Lucas crossed his arms a stern look on his face, "Maya. That was at 10. It's …" he looked at the broken clock on the floor then his watch on his wrist. "It's nearly 6 now."

Maya shrugged and sat down on her bed, looking at the three young men that stood with their arms crossed. They really reminded her of Shawn when he would reprimand her for something. "Yeah, so? You didn't eat either, Soaring Eagle. Zay didn't eat either and he came here at 12!"

"Well yeah, but we're not sick," Zay bounced on his the heels of his feet as if he had made the revaluation of the life time. "And neither am I!" Maya spat back at them. It was clear she was getting irritated that they insisted she was sick. She was a very stubborn girl.

Maya was about to say something again, but before she could get a word out, Farkle stuffed a thermometer in her mouth. She raised a brow at him, speaking with the foreign object obscuring her speech, "Why do you just have this on you?"

Farkle shushed her. "Don't talk. Make sure it's under your tongue. We really gotta get your temperature."

They quietly waited for the thermometer to beep.

"Wait. Farkle, why _do_ you have that just laying around?" Lucas looked at his shorter friend, curious.

"I mean," the young genius began, "It's not just laying around. It's in my first aid kit that I keep in my backpack!" Farkle's smile shone brightly on his face.

Zay shook his head, "Man. You're weird. But like… Thank God this kid is weird because where would we be without him weird."

"Thank you…?" Farkle wasn't sure how to take that.

Zay nodded and patted him on the back, "You're welcome, man!"

It was a genuine compliment, albeit a little oddly phrased.

Beepbeepbeep. Beepbeepbeep.

Maya sat on her bed, clearly annoyed as she stared at Farkle while he took the thermometer out of her mouth. He held it away from himself, and read the numbers off it, "101.2 degrees, Maya. You definitely have a fever."

Maya huffed with her arms over her chest. She refused to believe that she was sick. Lucas sat on her bed beside her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, rubbing her arm reassuringly. She was so tired, she rested her head against Lucas. "Don't sweat it short stack. It's probably just from all the nerves. You know how people always get sick during testing weeks."

Zay and Farkle nodded their heads in agreement and went back to their respected seats.

"It's not even that," Maya gave an angry sigh, rolling her eyes. "Riley was here last night until, like, 3 am? We were talking about…" Her voice trailed off when she remembered that Lucas was the topic of conversation last night with Riley. Her eyes slowly looked towards her right, finding that Lucas was looking directly at Maya with the same look he usually gave her. It was the look that Riley was talking about.

"Talking about what, Maya?" Zay was leaned forward in the bean bag chair. It seemed that this conversation was the most interesting thing he'd come across while visiting his friends today.

"Uhh…" Maya hesitated, trying to find the right words. ".. Her and her new boyfriend!" Maya sat up straight, getting out of the compromising position with Lucas. ' _Good thinking, Maya. Divert the attention away from you._ '

"Boyfriend?" Farkle raised a brow, a little bit of jealousy in his voice. "She was seeing someone?"

Maya reached for the tissue box again and blew her nose. "Yeah. That kid Jake in our Chem Lab. They've been going on dates and stuff for like three months and he finally asked her out." Maya threw the tissue in the trash and reached for another one.

"I see…" Farkle nodded his head slowly and absent-mindedly began to spin in the desk chair. Lucas noticed the change of attitude in Farkle and frowned. "That's kind of weird, don't you think? We heard nothing about this."

Maya nodded and shrugged her shoulders. "Yeah, right? I said that, too. I don't know what's up with that one."

Maya laid back onto her mattress, closing her eyes. Her own body heat was finally getting to her. It felt like her eyes were burning. "Sorry, Lucas. I'm not much of a study buddy at this point." Lucas smiled slightly and scooted himself back on her bed to lean against the wall. "Nah, it's fine," He placed his hand on her forehead. "But you really are burning up."

"I'm _not_ sick." Maya grumbled out.

Zay stood up and stretched his arms above his head. "Well, you can keep saying that but you sound sick as hell. So I'm gonna do you a favor and pick up some medicine for you." Zay grabbed his football off the floor and stuffed it into his gray Jansport backpack. Slinging it over his shoulder, he gently tapped Farkle on the side of his arm, drawing his attention to him. "You comin' man? You seem like you need a distraction."

Farkle abruptly stopped the spinning chair, "Huh? Oh.. Yeah, sure. Thanks." Smiling sincerely, Farkle packed up his belongings and followed Zay out the door, but not before saying goodbye to his two friends. "We'll be back. I'll pick you up some soup as well, Maya. Be good you two." Farkle gave his taller male friend a wink.

Maya caught that gesture out of the one eye that she had managed to open whilst waving a goodbye. She looked over at Lucas with a raised brow who could only try to hide the smile on his face and shrugged. "I mean, who really knows half the time with that kid, right?"

"Right…" Maya let out sarcastically. "But you know, you could have gone with them."

Lucas shrugged and moved to place himself on Maya's bed more comfortably. He was now positioned as one would regularly sit on a bed, his feet now facing the foot of the bed and the door. He patted the spot beside him, suggesting that she lay beside him. "Yeah, but who was gonna look after little sick you?" He couldn't help but chuckle. She was so adamant about not being sick. He found it cute.

"First off," Maya began, crawling over to the spot beside Lucas, "I'm not sick. And even if I was, I would definitely be able to take care of myself." She slipped under her mint green comforter, laying her head on her pillow. She faced away from him as he laid down behind her, wrapping an arm around her waist.

 **~[*]~**

After a 7 minute drive from campus, Zay and Farkle arrived at the Walmart that Lucas was just at the night before.

"So, Riley and this Jay guy, huh?" Farkle was just begging for a conversation about Riley's new beau and only Zay was around to have it with.

"Yeah, man. That came out of no where." Zay and Farkle walked up and down the aisles, trying to find the medicine section. Zay swung a basket back and forth in the air. "You jealous?" Zay stopped at one aisle and turned into it, his eyes scanning the shelves. He picked out a random box and showed it to his slightly shorter friend.

"No. That is not fever medicine. That's foot cream." Farkle fought the urge to roll his eyes. He trudged on in the aisle, determined to find the medicine that Maya needed before Zay could notice that he hadn't answered his question.

"No as in… you're not jealous or…?" Zay smirked over at Farkle and grabbed another box before putting it back. He made the decision that Maya didn't need gummy vitamins.

"I mean, so what if I am?" Farkle squatted low to grab the correct medicine from the bottom shelf and put it in Zay's basket.

"Well, I'm just sayin' you shoulda' made a move on her before that John guy did." Zay shrugged his shoulders and led the both of them to another aisle.

"Zay, I don't even know if she's in to me like that." Farkle looked down at his feet, a little embarrassed to be sharing an insecurity of his.

Zay looked back at him and patted Farkle reassuringly on the back. "You never know unless you try. But hey, maybe…" Farkle raised a brow, catching up to Zay who had walked to the snack aisle when he let his voice trail off. "Maybe what?"

Zay snatched up five bags of marshmallows and placed it in the basket and proceeded to walk to another end of the store. "Maybe that's why, she wasn't studying with Lucas and Riley. Doesn't she have that class with them?"

Farkle stopped in his tracks, only for just a moment though, when he came to the realization that yes, she did have that class with them. "Dude, you're right! Darnit. This is so unfair. They're probably holding hands and hugging, and making out, and and… Ugh!" Farkle let out a noise of frustration.

Zay laughed, grabbing a couple of items from the toy aisle and placing it into the basket with the rest of their items. "I'm just kidding, dude. Maya said that Riles was with some people from one of her classes working on a group presentation. Chill."

The darker skinned boy directed them towards the self-checkout. Farkle helped him bag everything up, his eye twitching as his mind raced to find different scenarios that had to do with Riley. "What if it's their Chem Lab class? What if Maya wasn't a part of their group?"

Zay and Farkle were walking out of the Walmart now, heading to Zay's car. He opened up his trunk and placed their items in then shut it securely. They both made their way to their seats: Farkle in the passenger seat while Zay drove.

"When have Riley and Maya not been in a group together? Plus. People don't normally have presentations in Lab classes, right?" Zay backed out of their spot and started in the direction of the campus.

"Yeah.." Farkle began as he bit on his thumb, staring out at the rode in front of them. "I want to say that I hope that they don't work out for my sake. Jack and Riley I mean. But I want her to be happy. So…"

Zay glanced towards Farkle at a red light, "So?"

Farkle smirked and sat back in his passenger seat, "So, I'll say that if he hurts her, he's going down."

Zay nodded in agreement. "That's more like it. And then you'll put your moves on her, right?"

Farkle shook his head, "What?! No! I haven't made it that far into the plan yet. I don't even know what 'moves' I have!"

Zay laughed and in the midst of their conversation, realized he missed their turn. "Crap. Gotta make a U-ie."

"Nah. Keep going, I gotta stop by this one place up ahead to get some Pho soup for Maya anyway. Also, what do you plan on doing with the toy guns you bought in the trunk?"

Zay turned into the lot that Farkle pointed out and found a spot. He waited until he put the car in park to answer him. "Well, Farkle Minkus. Those five toy guns are marshmallow shooters."

 **~[*]~**

"So…"

It was silent for a minute, Maya's eyes glancing up at numerous spots of the ceiling.

"Huckleberry?"

"Hm?"

"Are we cuddling?"

"Shh, don't ruin it."

Maya shook her head and closed her eyes. There was a sense of security as she laid there with him. She couldn't deny that it felt nice, comfortable even. She opened her eyes, just barely, to look down at his hand. With her left hand, she nudged his left hand gently. When his fingers reacted and spread apart slightly, she wedged her own between his.

She couldn't help but feel a little anxious as she waited to see if he would hold her hand, and he did, interlacing his fingers with hers. Maya let out a breath she wasn't sure she was holding.

"Maya?" She could feel his voice vibrating in his chest pressed against her back.

"Yeah?"

"Are we holding—"

"Shut up, Ranger Rick. You're ruining it."

A small smile formed on her lips, cheeks rosy from not only the heat of the fever but from slight embarrassment. She had used his own line against him.

"You're sick, Maya. You should take a nap. I'll wake you when Zay and Farkle get back." Lucas whispered behind her. His breath was hot on her fevered neck.

"Not sick… But I'll take you up on that nap. I do need sleep." Maya closed her eyes as Lucas chuckled into her neck.

It didn't even feel like five minutes later and Maya threw the covers off of her. "I can't sleep. It's too hot!" She looked towards her desk where Lucas had moved to. He was still studying and taking notes. "Wh— How long was I out for?"

Lucas looked at his watch and then towards Maya, placing his pen in the spine of the book. "Just like fifteen minutes. If it's too hot, I can open the door." He spun in the chair and reached for the doorknob and pried the wooden door open.

With the door open, Maya and Lucas were given front row seats to a show of two young adults making out in the hallway against the adjacent dorm room's door. "Julisa?" Maya raised a brow with a small smirk on her lips. ' _Good for her, getting some!_ '

The brunette girl—Julisa— unlatched herself from the boy in front of her, giving Maya a wink. This caught the attention of the blonde haired man, momentarily taking him away from all the kisses he was adorning Julisa's neck with. He turned his head to see who had interrupted them and that's when Maya's smirk faded away and her jaw dropped.

"Jake?!" Maya shouted across her room, absolutely appalled that Jake—the same guy that had just asked Riley out— was hooking up her next door neighbor.

Quickly, Julisa and Jake disappeared into Julisa's dorm room and shut the door behind them.

Lucas turned in his seat to look at Maya, eyes wide. " _That's_ Jake?!"

"From Chem Lab, yeah! What the actual crap!" Maya Hart was infuriated. "How dare he! Riley is the most sweetest girl in the _world_ and he goes off and does that! I knew I couldn't trust him! One syllable names do _not_ sit well with me!" Maya threw the covers off the rest of her body and swung her feet over the edge of the bed. When her feet hit the carpeted floor, she stood up too quickly and got a head rush.

Maya's body started to sway and Lucas was quickly on his feet to catch her. He held her securely against himself, brushing the blonde locks of hair out of Maya's face. "Maya. Calm down." He placed her back on the bed and got down on one knee as to be eye level with her as she sat on the edge of her mattress. "You're too darn stubborn. I told you, you're sick. So take it easy."

"No!" Maya fought weakly against Lucas' firm but tender hold on her arms. They were mostly there to keep her up. "He should learn not to mess with Riley! He has to answer to the Riley Protection Squad! I have to protect her, Lucas!" She was pleading. Lucas see the fire in her eyes, one that he had really admired.

"You're so busy protecting _her_ , who's gonna protect _you_?" He lifted his right hand and traced a path with his thumb from Maya's temple down to her jaw line. Maya didn't say anything after that. She really had no clue _what_ to say. Lucas smiled at her and gently took her face in both of his hands and pressed a gentle kiss upon her warm forehead. "So let _me_."

As Maya moved to get back into bed and under the covers, Lucas helped her and tucked her in. "Let me take care of you," he started off, "and let me take care of this Jake guy. Don't forget, Farkle and Zay are apart of the Riley Protection Squad too, you know."

Maya smiled and nodded her head. She could feel the sleep claim her mind and body. "Maybe I am sick."

Lucas was now stood up straight in the middle of her room facing her, his face down towards his phone as he worked on texting Farkle and Zay. He paused to look up at Maya with an incredulous on his face. "Yeah, maybe." He let out sarcastically, a small chuckle to follow it up. "Just get some sleep. Don't worry about it."

Maya did as told, closing her eyes to welcome dream land.

She didn't know how long it had been when she opened her eyes. She was brought out of her slumber when she heard Zay and Farkle enter her room, a loud and angry Farkle demanding to know where this 'Jeremy' guy was.

Maya couldn't make out the rest of their conversation, but they all moved to sit out in the hallway in front of Julissa's room.

Maya drifted back to sleep soon after that. She figured she'd let Ranger Rick be the one to take care of her. At least, just this once.

One final thought came to mind before she lost consciousness, ' _Wait, did they have marshmallow guns in their hands?_ '


	3. Chapter III

**AN:** Hi everyone! I want to thank each and everyone of you who has reviewed so far, they mean so much to me. It really lets me know that people are intrigued with what goes on in my cluttered mind. I'm actually not too familiar with writing humor, so this might be a little too over the top. Be rest assured though, things will become more serious with little pockets of humor here and there. Also, if you have any questions, feel free to ask them in a review. I want things to be as clear as I can make them! I'll either address the question in the next chapter or the following chapters or leave an answer here in author notes/in PMS.

Also, really quick question if any of you people read this, what do you think I should rename this? This was originally intended to be a two shot revolving around how stubborn Maya was, denying that she wasn't sick. I'm thinking of renaming this "Stubborn" or something. I'll definitely give you all a heads up before hand so you don't end up waiting for an update from "Not Sick" and getting nothing because I changed the name. :P

Thanks! Hope you all enjoy!

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If one were to walk down the hallway past Maya's dorm room, they'd be greeted with a rather peculiar sight. Three young men, who didn't particularly look alike in any way, where sitting in front of Maya's open door, eyes trained on the dorm room across from them.

One man looked to be the typical nose-in-book kind of fellow. Light brown hair fell just above his eyes, his haircut very reminiscent of a bowl. He was pretty lanky in build, closer to skinny than anything else. He sat with his shoulders back and chest forward as if ready to declare war on the door he stared at.

Beside him was a very different kind of man. This one had dirty blonde hair, too light to be brown, too dark to a true shade of blonde. He was definitely in fit shape, the fabric of his blue henley clinging onto his biceps and broad shoulders. One wouldn't consider him ripped, but he definitely looked like he could hold his own in a fight. Green eyes were also staring at the door, but he had a more stern look on his face, something akin to determination rather than anger.

The last of the three was a swarthy man, having a deeper complexion than the other two. He seemed to be the lax one of the three. His posture was loose, sitting against the wall with his shoulders slightly hunched over and one leg outstretched on the floor while the other was bent upward at the knee. He, too, stared at the door, but through half lidded eyes.

The most unusual part of the sight was what each of them were holding. Farkle, Lucas, and Zay had marshmallow shooters in their hands, each of them fully loaded. One could only assume that whoever was coming out of that door was going to be assaulted with white fluffy treats.

"Man, how long has it been?" If Zay's posture was no indication of how bored and restless he was getting, the tone of his voice definitely was.

Lucas looked at his watch momentarily, then back at the door. "Forty five minutes, Zay."

Zay tossed his hands up in the air, holding the marshmallow gun by—what would be on a real gun—it's magazine. "Guys, you do know what they're doing in there, right? How long are we going to be sitting out here waiting for him to just pop his head out?"

Farkle's eyes never left the door of room 306. If Farkle really were a boy robot, his laser eyes would surely have burned holes into the wooden door by now. "As long as it takes, Zay. As long as it takes."

"Okay, but what if that Jude dude spends the night?" Zay was an impatient man. He was also very easily distracted, full of energy most of the time, and easily bored. These combinations didn't go well when he had to sit still and stare at a door until some guy he knew barely anything about came out of it.

"Definitely not the type to," They all turned their heads to find Maya, wrapped up with her comforter around her shoulders and a marshmallow shooter in her right hand, her left too preoccupied with clutching the blanket around her.

"Maya," Lucas stood up to face her, placing his hands on her arms. He bent at his hips a little so that he could peer into her eyes. "I told you to rest. Let me take care of this."

"Not a chance, Huckleberry. At least not now. You can feed me soup tomorrow, but right now? There are more important things on the line." Maya sniffled and rubbed the snot from her nose with the back of one her hands. Her nose was red from irritation and her eyes puffy.

Just then, they heard the door across from them click open and out came a very disheveled man, blonde hair sticking up every which way. The buttons of his shirt were lazily done, skipping a button or two in numerous places. His pants weren't even zipped up.

It took about a fraction of a second for Farkle to shout out, "Open fire!" The four of them shot marshmallows at the boy, eliciting yelps from his mouth. Though marshmallows were supposed to be extremely soft and cushiony, the marshmallow shooters had sucked out air from the their pockets. They now felt stale and hard as they pelted him in numerous places on his body.

Arms worked fast to pump the marshmallow shooters, fingers pulling triggers which were followed by many popping sounds. Maya's blanket was on the floor, forgotten in the midst of war. Jake raised his arms to shield his face from all the marshmallows.

"What the fuck, who are you guys?!" Jake screamed from behind his hands, completely dazed and confused.

"Who are we?!" Farkle was absolutely livid as he raised his voice. He was almost shaking as she aimed the nose of his toy gun at Jake's face, right between his eyes. He'd show this guy a lesson, and that lesson was to never mess with the object of Farkle's affection. How dare he.

Lucas placed a hand on Farkle's shoulder, trying to calm him down. "Don't worry. I got this, man." In a split second, Lucas had the other blonde up against the wall, the fabric of his mis-matched buttoned shirt balled up in his fists. "Who are we? We are who you deal with when you make mistakes like the one you just made." Lucas' voice was an octave or two lower. It was a stark difference from Farkle's uncontrollable anger. Lucas' anger was very controlled, he didn't have to increase the volume in his voice in order to intimidate this guy.

Maya found this extremely attractive. She stood back watching the scene play in front of her. Through her eyes, it seemed like an action movie where the protagonist had caught the bad guy. To anyone else outside the five of them, it looked like a pretty bad parody movie.

Zay held his gun in his hands, glaring at the boy as well. This was definitely not a boring night anymore. He knew the marshmallow guns would be a good source of entertainment. He had originally planned to just use the guns for a marshmallow gun fight around the school's quad, but this worked, too. It also doubled as a very lethal—as lethal as one could get with marshmallows, anyway—weapon. "Who are we? You're worst nightmare, bud. You definitely messed with the wrong girl."

Maya stepped in now, placed an arm on Lucas' bicep. He kept Jake against the wall as he looked down at the blonde female. She gave him a look with those blue eyes of her a small smirk on her pink lips. "I got this, Ranger Rick," her voice was sweet, as if she were completely calm.

Maya Hart was definitely not calm.

As soon as Lucas stepped back and released his hold on the very silent boy, Maya's hands grabbed a hold of his already wrinkled shirt and slammed Jake against the wall. She raised her arms, forcing Jake to stand on the tips of his toes. Although Maya was much shorter than everyone else in the hallway, she was definitely a strong one.

"Who are we?!" Maya echoed everyone else before her, including jake.

"Ow! What girl are you even talking about?" Jake winced his eyes, cringing from the blow to his head that he received when it came in contact with the wall behind him rather abruptly.

"Ohohoho," Maya shook her head, blue eyes glaring at the boy in her hands. "Don't play coy with me, you dick. You know who I'm talking about. Riley Matthews! You don't just ask Riley Matthews out one day and then go bang the floor sleaze another!"

"Riley?!" Jake repeated after her.

"Yes, Riley!" Farkle, Maya, Lucas, and Zay shouted in unison.

"Uh, what's going on here?" A voice from just to the right of them questioned.

All five of them turned their attention to a very confused and pissed off looking Riley Matthews. She had one foot tapping the ground, arms crossed over her chest with her weight on the foot that stood stationary on the ground.

"Nothing, Riley! You're friends are crazy! They just attacked me out of nowhere." Jake looked over to his girlfriend, eyes pleading for her to hear him out.

"Maya," Riley began, now placing her hands on her hips. "Let go of him. I want to hear what he has to say."

Maya looked back and forth between the couple, torn on what to do. "But—"

Riley cut her best friend off, raising the back of her hand in the air by her face, showing off a cheap metal band on her finger. "Ring power, Maya!"

Maya growled and rolled her eyes and let the boy go, dropping her hands from his chest to cross her arms over one another in a similar fashion to what Riley had done earlier.

"Jake, it looks to me that you're leaving Julisa's room at 1 am in the morning. You want to explain that to me?" Riley's face changed from being outraged to a very familiar expression that her close friends were sure to recognize. Her eyes were wide, eyebrows raised, with her lips parted just slightly. It was an innocent look that Riley gave whenever she wanted to know the truth.

"No, that's not true at all! Julisa and I are cousins, actually!"

"Ew James, what the fuck?!" Zay had his hands facing the ceiling with a very disgusted expression on his face.

"Don't lie to her!" Farkle said through gritted teeth. "Tell her the truth, Jamie!" At his sides, Farkle's free hand balled into a fist, his knuckles turning white around the gun.

"Oooh, let me at him! He's a liar! He slept with Julisa! Riley, the reason why he didn't want anyone to know you guys were official was because he's still fucking other girls!" Maya's voice was hardly threatening, laced with sniffles and congestion.

Riley's expression started to falter, her head tilted to one side with an eyebrow raised. "Is that, true?"

"Baby," Jake began, "Don't believe these people. They're a bunch of idiots!"

Maya nearly flung herself at him again, but Lucas had wrapped his arms around her middle and held her back. Her arms were swinging widely in front of her, fingers trying to reach the collar of Jake's shirt.

"No, Maya. Let Riley deal with Jean." Lucas looked at Riley, expecting a response out of her.

Riley let a very uncharacteristic growl escape her. She took a couple steps forward and poked her index finger into his chest multiple times as she spoke. "These people you just called idiots are my friends! They have known me way longer than you have!" She was poking his chest at every other word of each of her sentences. By this rate, that specific spot on his chest was bound to bruise.

"Do you really think I'm going to believe some boy I've known since the beginning of the semester over my best friends that I've known since middle school?"

Jake grabbed her hand and lowered it, trying to look sincerely in her eyes. "Sweetie, Riley. We can talk about this. I made a mistake."

With one of her hands in Jake's hold, she used her free hand to slap him across the face. The smack echoed through out the near empty halls and even Maya was surprised at how Riley handled everything. It was a pretty strong blow considering it was Riley's non dominant hand. "We're through, asshole."

Farkle had a huge smirk, nodding his head. "That's my girl." He let it slip out, but his voice was so quiet that only Zay picked up on it. Zay looked at Farkle and nodded his head in appreciation, almost as if he were congratulating Farkle for saying it out loud. Farkle realized his mistake and quickly cleared his throat. "See, Justin. This is why you don't mess with Riley Matthews."

Jake was currently nursing his wounded cheek, rubbing it to try to get the blood to circulate through out the area in attempts to try and prevent a bruise from ruining his 'perfect face'. "You guys do realize that my name is Jake right?"

Riley rolled her eyes and shook her head. She was completely disgusted and annoyed with him now that she could barely stand to look at him, let alone hear his voice. "Oh, shut up, Johnny."

Zay reached inside Maya's dorm room and fetched the last of the marshmallow shooters, handing it to Riley, fully loaded.

Riley raised her gun, pointed in Jake's direction. "Now, get out of here."

Jake looked at the four of them with both of his eyebrows raised. "Riley, are you for real?"

"She said, git boy." Lucas motioned for him to leave with his gun. In fact, all of them had their guns pointing at him.

Before he could even turn to leave, Riley opened fire at him, screaming out a war cry. Jake fled from the scene quickly, leaving a trail of marshmallows behind him.

They all laughed and it was Riley who started the group hug.

"Well," Riley sighed, a little emotionally exhausted. "It's late. I should head back to my dorm room." She placed the marshmallows shooter back in Maya's room and the rest of them did the same. "Thanks guys." She smiled at all of them, rubbing at her arms.

"You gonna be okay?" Farkle placed a hand on Riley's arm, an act meant to comfort her.

"I will be."

"Is it okay if I walk you back? I mean, I wanna make sure you get back safely." Farkle smiled at the shorter brunette and scratched at the back of his neck, feeling a little nervous. He could see Zay behind Riley mouthing the words, 'Smooth move!' at him.

"Um," Riley smiled up at Farkle and nodded twice, shrugging her shoulders. "Yeah, I'd like that."

The two of them left, Farkle offering his Jacket to Riley and placing it on her shoulders. Farkle walked beside her, hands in his pockets. Zay, Maya, and Lucas could hear Farkle trying to make smalltalk.

The remaining three looked at each other, all with knowing looks on their faces.

"Well, Luke," Zay began, eyeing both him and Maya. He raised a brow at the guy. "You ready to head back?" Zay usually slept over in Lucas' dorm room whenever he visited campus. There was something hidden in his voice, an implication that Lucas definitely picked up on.

"Man, Zay, you snore way too loud." Lucas sighed and grabbed his books from Maya's desk, starting to place them in his backpack. He dragged out these motions, moving slower than usual. "I can never get a wink of sleep whenever you're here."

"Uhuh, sure." Zay smirked at his tanned friend, leaning against one of the walls with his arms crosse, knowing fully well what Lucas was trying to do.

Maya picked her blanket off the ground and sat at her bed, looking at the two. "I mean, I wouldn't mind if one of you just stayed here. I have the room. I don't care about snoring." Maya shrugged her shoulders and wrapped her blanket around her again.

Zay pushed himself off the wall and shook his head. "No, Maya. You're sick. You need all the rest you can get. I'd feel awfully bad if my snoring kept you up. I'll take Lucas' room and spare you the agony. Lucas can stay here for the night."

"Sure, okay." Maya nodded her head, watching Zay slowly back out of her room.

"I'll see you guys tomorrow." Zay was about to turn and leave, but Lucas approached him, bumping fists with one of his best friends. "You owe me, dude."

Lucas rolled his eyes and shook her his head, a smile on his lips as he tried to hide the pink tint on his cheeks. "Yeah, whatever Babineux."

Zay waved over at Maya and left, "See you tomorrow, blondie."

Maya raised her hand and waved back, "Later, flatbutt!"

Lucas closed the door once Zay left and turned around to look at Maya. She sat on her bed, just watching him. This was nothing new to the both of them. As Riley had mentioned two nights ago, Maya and Lucas were extremely close. Lucas often spent the night after a long study session.

Lucas grabbed a spare pillow and blanket from Maya's closet, about to make his bed on the ground by her own bed. "Alright, shortstack. Time for bed. You're sick and should have been asleep hours ago."

Before Lucas could lay his pillow on the carpet, Maya reached out for Lucas' wrist tugging him towards her bed. "Sleep with me," she let out. Her cheeks turned red immediately. Curse Riley for putting romantic and intimate ideas of herself and Lucas in her mind! They were strictly platonic, they had never even held hands! Well, now they had. "Oh god, not like that. I just meant on my bed. The ground's gross and dirty and cold." Maya's words all meshed into one, letting them out in one quick breath.

Lucas raised a brow at her, tucking the pillow under his arm. "I've slept on the ground plenty times before. That's definitely not the reason. So why would you want that?"

Maya rolled her eyes and sighed, trying to focus her eyes on anywhere but Lucas and the dumb grin on his lips. "Because…" Maya mumbled something under her breath.

Lucas leaned closer to her, cupping a hand around his ear. "I'm sorry, what was that?"

Maya grabbed her own pillow and screamed into it, letting out her embarrassment. She took a deep breath and let it out, then took her face out of her pillow. "Because, Huckleberry. I would like to cuddle." She said all of this through gritted teeth, very slowly to make sure he heard her. She wasn't going to repeat it again.

Lucas's grin turned into a smile, "Scoot your butt over."

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AN: As you can tell, I've left this open for a chapter four so _**yes**_ I'm going to continue this! I wouldn't have been able to even come to the decision if it weren't for all of you. :) Until next time!


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